Participatory Evaluation of Chintamani DLDP - Ajit Mani
In September 2003, a participatory evaluation was carried out on the Chintamani DLDP. Ajit Mani of Interventions (India) Pvt. Ltd. facilitated this study whereby Coolie Sangha Representatives and Field Staff themselves made a Problem Tree, Objective Tree and a retrospective Log Frame to communicate the project logic of the DLDP in their taluk. They identified Goal Indicators, Purpose Indicators, and Outcome Indicators with suggestions to improve Means of Verification.
The study found our Activity Process monitoring to be excellent, but suggested that much more had to be done with regard to Effects Monitoring. To begin with, we need to organize our data in a time-line manner — i.e. our database is designed to capture data on a continual basis and keep it up-to-date “as of today” but not, for example, to reflect how the situation was 1 year back or 2 years back, etc. As a result it was not possible to quantitatively assess Yield (Income indicator) and Acreage (Wealth indicator) increases.
Their understanding of the DLDP as an important instrument in the empowerment of the Coolie caste-class is very impressive. Linkages to other Coolie Sangha building efforts are clearly elucidated.